Jan 26, 2014

Now Jennifer told me I did not have to post the massive load of stuff she sent me.. so I won't

Instead I will just show you this picture of my pie pan: Yummy!!

Hugs!!

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Jennifer did ask me to talk a little bit about some of the cakes I sent her so that I will do ;)

Now miniatures and miniature foods are not simple to make, the baking process can be even longer than real life baking. So while I will show you some of the hows, your processes can be different as all artists have their own tricks of the trade and techniques. Just try and have fun.

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Cookies:

Cookies are some of the easiest foods to start with as the technique for cookies can be expanded upon for lots of foods.

You can see in this shot I have mixed a bit of tan clay with some pre-baked crumbles of choco chip clay.

Cut out, stamp or shape your cookie. Then your going to smash a bit of tinfoil on the top of the cookie to give it some detail.

Once you have your shape and dents you will apply some chalk around the edges and dabbed points to replicate browning done by oven. My cake tutorial shot....

You see I haven't covered the entire cookie, just edges and blotches.

This part is optional but I added a few extra chips to poke out of the cookie for detail before baking:

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Cakes:

Cakes and slices can be done the same way. For this piece I have done a square slice but you can do round or a triangular piece.

When doing light cakes you should use a translucent clay mix. As you know I use Premo Sculpey Accents clay in large quantities.

The key to cakes and bread pieces is the crumbling texture you produce when you swirl the clay: Using a pin, exacto or toothpick you will make circles or swirl the surface very delicately, but thoroughly.

After lots of swirls and turning you will get your crumbled surface.

That's when you apply your chalk in in colors around the edges and top of the cake slice. If you are frosting the whole cake..then you don't need to.

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Cheesecake:

Cheesecakes can be done different ways as well but the piece I created for Jennifer was a single serve.

The crumb coat can be made with tan clay, yellowish brown whatever mix you are going for but this is how I do my bases, with brown and tan swirl

Then you will add a very thin layer of that mix to the bottom of your cheesecake colored square. And only swirl the bottom layer like we did with the cakes to produce crumb.

Color with your chalk

Of course there are many varied techniques here and more questions to field but this should get you started on making some wonderful treats yourself.

Jan 24, 2014

That post title was for Marisa I told you it would make a great one :P

And the title does make sense with all the things my befuddled mind tries to process. <If this wording doesn't make sense let me show you this graph of how my mind works for mini ideas> ..ehem..

So you see from the above graph..that *HEHEHE HARHARHAR*

Any ways....

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I have decided to enter the Undersized Urbanite contest and the HBS Contest and work on them AT THE SAME TIME!!!!

I thought to enter undersized urbanite with a simple theme house, it wont place as anything but I am going to build it any ways and I thought just joining this newish contest might help bring it to light for the future contestants as well, also why don't you join?

The Undersized Urbanite can be found at the top tab of my page here I will be working on it over the next couple of months in random spurts.

As for the HBS Miniatures.com contest, I just ordered the house. My long distance sister Jenny Bee and I, will be working on these houses together gain just like the Greenleaf contest. Jen has a awesome idea ;)

My idea is big also, I will be doing some massive construction on this one..good thing we have almost a year for the build ;)

Tomorrow I will show you the wonders that the darling Jennifer of Plushpussycat sent me and see if anyone else wants to do a swap for valentines ;)

Jan 11, 2014

This post is really just about a question I have for all of you mini folks around the world in each your individual countries..for a future spring..thing *wink*

But I thought I would also fill it with random pictures of things, since that is how the cookies bounce around in my head ;)

Ok, so my question to you folks in other countries outside the states is: Do you have access to a product called foam board? It is the paper covered 3/16th inch thickness or 5mm board you can carve for small roomboxes projects etc? Normally used in offices or art shops.

And if you can get it is it inexpensive where you live? A dollar/currency for a large sheet? Please let me know in comments or google etc if this is a product you can get. Thanks for your assistance.
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Now on to the ramblings of scale:

1:6 We got my daughter the Barbie Dreamhouse for Christmas, its a massive thing 3 ft tall and 6 rooms, they came fully furnished so it is a pretty nice buy. It can be used for monster high and Barbie

1:24 The Elven Cottage sits on my work desk, I got impatient and painted the front a bit. I may work on it later...*sigh*

1:48 I took out some of the 1/4 scale furniture I got and played around with painting it, I am eager to start this smaller scale...eager..butterflies..elevator music in my head....

Jan 8, 2014

Hello mini folk of the globe! I hope wherever you are that you are not frozen, like we have been here in the US. Now when I say frozen I mean yesterday in NY they had a winter warning advisory stating a -15 below zero wind.

So you figure exposed skin in this weather can get frostbite in 15 minuets...in NY not Antarctica! Keep warm, snuggly, inside and mini crafting!
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I wanted to show you the swap Fabiola and I set up around Christmas. Fabiola is a wonderful lady who always leaves encouraging messages and kindness on our blogs, I am sure most of us know her and for those who are just finding out you are in for a treat!

Fabiola sent me a amazing array of beautiful and wonderfully crafted goodies as you can see. These signs for a tea and cake shop are just beautiful and are inspiring me to create another café style shadow box.

As you can see this love towel..aww! and wonderful clock would fit in with the scene as well!

Faby also made these fabulous little slippers, a set for him and her.. they are sooo fine and perfect. As I look at my real life ratty slippers *lol*

Fabiola has not gotten mine yet but when she does I hope they are as wonderful as these fine gifts I received! Thank you so much Faby! Your friendship and encouragement are always a wonderful gift and these little wonders you sent just add to how fabulous you are! Big hugs!!

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You all know, I do love to swap! I have been thinking of love lately..its so wonderful even in small doses ;)

Jan 5, 2014

Hello Folks I wanted to share some of the wonders I received from Wyrna over the Holiday.

I think we all know the amazing lady that she is and most know of how exquisite of a crafter she is. I was lucky to have received some of her loveliest hand crafted miniatures! You might want to go have a look at her shop....AMAZING!!!

Wyrna sent me one of her exquisite tables decorated in this lovely and feminine theme, it is just so perfect in hand...LOVE it. You might be so lucky to win a piece of her furniture in her Givaway!

An array of beautiful Christmas ornaments, they are fantastic pieces!

She also sent me some of her lovely storage boxes!

And of course you have seen these beautiful and tiny Christmas candles, they are perfection!

I want to thank you again Wyrna for sending such beautiful and exquisite gifts to me! Your thoughtfulness and friendship means so much!

Jan 4, 2014

How were your celebrations? I wish all the very best for you in this new year, remember it is never too late to start anew all it takes is the courage and work!__________________________________________________________

I wanted to share my new years project with you a little. This project came close to convincing me to see how fast and hard I could throw it at the wall..

I did not calculate the arid climate in my house, as it is winter and dry.. when thinking on the paperclay drying.

So it has ended up with a million cracks. My concept for this house was a very clean smooth looking house.. but after being a big ole baby about it.. and taking a breath...maybe a couple of glasses of wine... I figured I can make this work and just have a cottage look to it and go with the cracking flow ;)

It is a work in progress but I thought I would share some sculpting shots.

The Elven House..er Cottage

This project started out as a thought of turning one of the Half scale houses I purchased from my Greenleaf win into a elven styled house. After using my paper patterns I realized that it would be too much patching work and about 80% would be remade anyways.

So I decided on gator board. While using the Arthur as a size guide.

This uses homemade paper clay.. but the version for this is a bit different. Paper mache' Clay. I will get into it a bit later.

I decided on making a dragon scale patterned roof for this, as this look is from a lot of my geek...er RPG games and it fit the slope and style of the roof nicely.

A lot more work to be done! I want to encourage you folks to try some toilet paper clay room boxes or roofs for 2014, lets learn together!